Calaveras mercury emissions up

A flock of cormorants cruises by the power plant as fishermen and recreationalists take advantage of a nice day to use Calveras Lake November 10, 2011.

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The U.S. EPA's searchable Toxics Release Inventory report can be found online at www.epa.gov/tri.

To see figures for the Calaveras Power Station, type ZIP code 78263 into search box.

By year

Texas Commission on Environmental Quality data on mercury emissions for Calaveras Power station:

2000: 646 pounds

2007: 323 pounds

2008: 417 pounds

2009: 358 pounds

2010: 540 pounds

The coal plants at Calaveras Lake pumped roughly 51 percent more mercury into San Antonio skies in 2010 than the previous year, in part because of the addition of a fourth unit, while the other three ran less in 2009 due to maintenance outages.

That's a smaller increase than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found in its annual toxics release report, which calculated that, including on- and off-site waste disposal, the coal plants generated 768 pounds of mercury, up from 440 pounds in 2009.

Coal ash is the main waste product, and in many parts of the country, it goes into landfills.

CPS Energy, which owns and operates the Calaveras Power Station, sells all its coal ash waste to a company that recycles it into road bed material, said spokeswoman Lisa Lewis. The EPA report includes that waste in its totals; TCEQ figures are for air emissions only.

The Toxics Release Inventory, released Thursday, is “a cornerstone of EPA's community-right-to-know programs,” said Administrator Lisa Jackson in a statement, “and has played a significant role in protecting people's health and the environment by providing communities with valuable information on toxic chemical releases.”

Mercury is one of more than a dozen toxic chemicals measured.

Blown from coal stacks, it winds up in waterways, where it is absorbed by fish that can end up on the dinner table. It's one of the most common contaminants in U.S. bodies of water and is absorbed cumulatively in the bloodstream and up the food chain.

Mercury can damage the nervous system, lungs, kidneys, vision and hearing. Risk depends on exposure levels and is greatest for fetuses and children.

Children exposed in utero can have impaired brain functions, including verbal, attention, motor control and language deficits and lower IQs.

Because of these risks, the EPA last month released first-ever limits on mercury and other toxic emissions, which the agency says will prevent up to 1,200 premature deaths in Texas while creating up to $9.7 billion in health benefits in 2016.

Mercury has been found in fish at Calaveras and nearby Braunig lakes and in the upper San Antonio River at levels “well below EPA limits,” said Angela Rodriguez, an environmental manager for CPS.

That means they are considered safe to eat, according to the EPA, the TCEQ and the San Antonio River Authority, which monitors the river.

And while mercury emissions from the Calaveras plants increased from the previous year, they've been dropping for the past decade, when CPS only had three plants running.

The fourth, Spruce 2, is considered one of the cleanest-burning coal plants in the country. A quarter of its $1 billion price tag went toward pollution controls.

CPS has for the past decade added many of those controls to its other three coal units — and while they're aimed mainly at ozone-causing nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and fine particulate matter, which is linked to heart and lung problems, they have also reduced mercury emissions.

“The key takeaway to us is that despite adding a new unit, we have maintained emissions below year 2000 levels, as we committed to do before we built Spruce 2,” said Lewis.

In response to the new EPA rule on mercury, CPS will install activated carbon injection systems on all four coal units at a cost of roughly $2 million to $4 million each.

The installation should be complete in about 18 months, putting the utility into compliance well before the three years allowed by the new rule.